Really Russia? You’re targeting breastfeeders now?

A breastfeeding expert and director of a pre-natal centre that provides free phone consultations to mothers who are having trouble breastfeeding, or who simply want to know more about it, has been arrested in Russia, with authorities claiming that the centre is a cult.

No strangers to controversy, the Russian powers that be have already been in the headlines this year when Russian parliament passed an anti-gay bill. The bill, which stigmatises Russia’s gay community and bans the distribution of information about homosexuality is an effort to promote traditional Russian values, as opposed to Western liberalism.

In addition another bill, to be discussed in February, could see homosexual couples lose custody of their children. The bill, published on the website of Russia’s Duma (the lower house of parliament), says the state can strip parents of custody if they practice “non-traditional sexual relations,” the term used in Russian laws to describe homosexual relations.

Now another controversial decision has hit the headlines. On Friday, October 18, when Russian police announced the arrest of an alleged cult leader, local media splashed the news across the headlines. The only problem was the supposed cult turned out to be a pre-natal center, and its director, Zhanna Tsaregradskaya, had never claimed to have any occult powers. She merely taught seminars on breastfeeding and natural births.

About the centre

During the days of the Soviet Union, childbirth had been the sole responsibility of state-run clinics. Midwives and private clinics were not permitted to deliver babies, a practice that meant the skills of natural births and home births were lost for generations. The state-operated clinics also encouraged mothers to use baby formula instead of breast milk.

So, with even their grandmothers unable to help and doctors not always accommodating natural methods, women began to search for information. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, natural births, dieting and other health care trends began to flood in from the west. The Rozhana Centre, which was established in 1989 and helped pioneer the re-introduction of home births in Russia, offers training courses for midwives and expectant mothers interested in having a home birth. Contrary to common practices in Soviet and Russian medicine, the centre also encourages mothers to breastfeed their newborns.

According to the statement released on Friday by Russia’s counter-extremism police, the Rozhana Center was actually “a sect with a strict hierarchical structure.”

The investigators’ statement emphasised the fact that Tsaregradskaya steered mothers away from traditional “principles.” The center’s roughly 14 “followers” were taught to “reject the family as a social institution, to act negatively toward their spouses (men), to refuse medical help, education, work and military service,” the statement said. In essence, they were being taught disobedience toward social norms. As the statement also claimed, the center used “physical and psychological violence” to maintain control over its followers.

A co-ordinator at the centre denied that any violence or ‘brainwashing’ was used in their training courses. “We provide free phone consultations to mothers who are having trouble breastfeeding, or who simply want to know more about it,” the co-ordinator told TIME.

“We have no idea why our director has been singled out like this. We can’t figure out why there’s this witch hunt now. Maybe it’s just a fear of the unfamiliar,” said the woman.

Over the weekend, Russia’s state-run media ran stories accusing the Rozhana Center of “brainwashing mummies”. If convicted of both charges, Tsaregradskaya faces up to seven years in prison.

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Breastfeeding is best for babies and provides many benefits. Combined breast and bottle feeding in the first weeks of life may reduce the supply of your own breast milk. Always consult your doctor, midwife or health care professional for advice about feeding your baby. This post is part of the Early Life Nutrition story.